Today I was blessed to join the Extraordinary Minister (“EM”) Ministry of Holy Cross Chaldean Catholic Church in Farmington Hills, Michigan. This is something that I’ve always yearned to do. What could be better than delivering to the faithful, the Body, Blood, Soul and Divinity of our Lord and Savior Jesus Christ?

Over the course of my life, I’ve served the Church in various ways, but never have I had the opportunity to serve in this unique manner. I truly believe this was all God’s doing. I think it’s important to understand the events leading up to this wonderful blessing to portray that this was truly a design of the Holy Spirit.

Quick little background on myself – I served the Church in my youth as an altar boy for many years. As I grew into my late middle and high school years, I acted in a Server role in the Eastern Rite church (similar to a sub-deacon in the Latin Rite Church), reading certain parts during mass. Like most cradle Catholics, I went to college and fell away from the faith. I reverted back in my mid-twenties after having attended a retreat in 2015. I will share more of my testimony in a separate blog post, but I’ve been on this reversion journey ever since.

On this reversion journey, I found myself attending a men’s group called “Into the Breach” in the Fall of 2020. This men’s group met once a week. The leaders would play a video produced by the Knights of Columbus called “Into the Breach” to the extended group, then they would have someone share a testimony with the larger group, and after we would gather in smaller groups to go over some questions in a more intimate setting. Within this small group I met and befriended a few gentlemen who served the altar at Holy Cross. They convinced my brother and I to join them in serving the Saturday vigil mass. [So at this point, it had been 12 or so years since I served the altar from my high school days. I must say, it was a great blessing to get back into it and we’ve been doing that since.] Recently my brother and I were approached by Monsignor, who wanted to make us EM’s to help serve the congregation in an additional capacity.

So Monsignor told us to stay after mass a few weeks ago and we’d go through the EM process. My brother and I arranged our schedules to free sometime after mass. That day came, and Monsignor wasn’t celebrating mass. He wasn’t even in the parish. He had a wedding to attend and couldn’t make it. So a few weeks later, after mass, he asked if we could come by after work…

Experience:

I woke up that morning excited, knowing the blessing was going to happen today. I was scrolling through Instagram during some downtime at work, which I use only to follow family and Catholic accounts. One of the accounts I follow is called “Catholic Connect”. They re-posted something from “Catholic Theology”. It was a picture of an older, St. John Paul II, celebrating mass in the Basilica di San Giovanni in Laterano in Italy. He was kneeling, holding the Eucharist in his hand and weeping. The caption accompanying the post read, “Pope John Paul II, celebrating mass, broke down into tears. We as Catholics should have such love of the Eucharist!”. The great St. John Paul II is my patron saint. So it was only fitting to see this post and have it speak to me on the day I’m supposed to be blessed to be an EM.

I listen to Catholic radio any chance I can. I really like Catholic Connection in the mornings with Teresa Tomeo. At my previous job, my work schedule was 9am-6pm and I had a 45 minute drive home. So on my way home I’d listen to Catholic Answers quite a bit which coincided with my drive (it’s on from 6pm to 8pm EST). I’ve been at my current job for a year and a half now, and for most of my tenure my schedule was 7:30am-4:30pm, so on my drive home I wouldn’t catch Catholic Answers. Recently, I became eligible to work 4-10’s, where I’d have Monday off and work four, ten-hour days the rest of the week, i.e. 7:30am-6:30pm. The week of the EM blessing was the first week my 4-10 schedule was effective. I had taken Monday off and Tuesday was the first 10 hour day and also the day of the blessing. So after work, on my drive to the Church I was listening to Catholic Answers for the first time in at least a year and a half. The 7pm hour had just kicked off and the first question someone asked was about cannibalism. I’ll spare you the details, but the apologist went on to explain that a common question people ask Catholics is are we cannibals, since we are eating the flesh of our Lord during every mass? That if we truly believe in transubstantiation, during the mass the hosts (bread), through the power of the Holy Spirit acting through the person of the priest, turns into the Eucharist, the Body and Blood of our savior, we are consuming true flesh and true blood? The apologist explained that that our Lord is both God and Man and He gave us His Body and Blood and he told us to consume Him (John Chapter 6). I thought it was uniquely interesting timing that my initial blessing to become an EM fell through just a few weeks back, was rescheduled to fall on the first day my 4-10 schedule became effective, which allowed me to listen to Catholic Answers for the first time in a year and a half, and the first question I happen to hear on the show was about the Eucharist and our consumption of it. Coincidence? I think not. (Teresa Tomeo calls these instances God-cidences).

Reflection

So what does this all mean? The way I interpret this is that this new ministry is what God wills for me currently in my life. He’s directed me to Holy Cross as a Server and continues to direct me as an EM, to serve His people, the congregation.

I believe that God speaks to us in various ways all the time. It just depends how much attention we are paying that allows us to truly listen. God gives us subtle signs all the time, but we really have to be paying attention to connect the dots. I believe that we are at a heightened level of awareness when we are in a state of grace. And the more we sin, be it venial or mortal, the less aware we become. Regardless, I know that God is always guiding us, giving us signs, and affirming things, it’s just up to us to listen. I’m reminded of that painting where Jesus is knocking on the knob-less door. It’s up to us to let him in.  

Alternative Reflection

As my brother and I met with Monsignor, he took us through a power point to explain the EM ministry before he taught us the ropes and blessed us. He said that it is now our responsibility, to share in the preaching, teaching and leading aspects of the Church. That we are being used as instruments of the Body of Christ to bring the Eucharist to God’s people, and that every time we lift up the Eucharist and say “The Body of Christ”, we are proclaiming to the congregation, that the Eucharist is truly the Body, Blood, Soul and Divinity of our Lord and Savior Jesus Christ. To which the recipient responds, “Amen”, affirming “It truly is”!

Our faith is beautiful!

Prayer:

St. John Paul II, pray for us, that we may be guided by the Holy Spirit to do the will of the Father. That we may encounter Him every time we receive the Holy Eucharist and spend time with Him in the Most Blessed Sacrament.

“The Eucharist is the secret of my day. It gives strength and meaning to all my activities of service to the Church and to the whole world…Let Jesus in the Blessed Sacrament speak to your hearts. It is he who is the true answer of life that you seek.”

– St. John Paul II